Hi betravis311
First off all I like your German. Your question is complex. I try to split it into lots of answers.
If it comes to cutting the different’s regarding CIP3 and / or CIP4 are just some gimmicks. With CIP4 you get a view of the realistic sheet at the cutter display. CIP3 shows you just a colored (yellow, blue, red, etc.) area. On a small cutter I do not see any problems to work with CIP3. The programming is the same. On a large cutter the view of individual products may help to split up the different products from mixed sheets.
The licen$e is always a financial question. To get the right CIP3 or CIP4 data to the cutter you have get your prepress area updated. As far as I know there is no alternative standard but CIP3/4. The next question would if the licen$e for your prepress device really includes cutting information’s. And the most important question is can any cutter supplier work with this information’s. You see CIP3/4 is just a matrix and it has to be filled with life. If would ask the cutter supplier if they ever worked together with your prepress device! Most are working, but asking is better than believing.
An alternative is to program the cutter from another office. This means you use the software Polar Compucut and wright somewhere manually cutting programs (not using CIP3/4). This program’s will be send to the cutter. I can not judge if this way would be economic in your case. But it is possible and easy.
No paper cutter accepts CIP3, CIP4, jdf and all the other standards. All information from prepress goes through a software which converts the prepress data to a cutting program for the individual cutter. Every cutter supplier has its own interface. In case of the Polar 92X it is Compucut using CIP3.
The cutter has to have an interface to be connected to a LAN. The Polar cutters have a special board for this. This board is called DBR. If you like to buy this board you should ask Heidelberg for the price first. They need the correct machine type, the machine number and the actual software version of the 92X. You get a board DBR, if necessary a new board CP (software update) or just Eprom’s, a CD including the Software Polar Compucut. It would be smart (and this is not a joke) to get a service engineer to install in your plant the software Compucut, run together with you the wires (with RJ45 plugs) and learn at least the basic function from Compucut. If Heidelberg stets everything up it is their responsibility if it comes to small problems.
I have to be careful to talk about Microcut. Because I do not really know how they integrate their control unit into a Polar 92X or any other new cutter. A Polar 92X and most other new cutters are built under special law. And if you change anything, you (the owner !!!) become responsible for the whole safety concept. This is a high risk. If you go the Microcut way you should have in written (!) some responsibility. Best would be some OSHA certificate.
I hope you like crazy English as well
Buntpapier
